Yeah, Witch and Wizard was just so farfetched- I'm sorry, but I can't suspend my disbelief that much.

There's suspending disbelief and then there's hanging it by the neck until dead...

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~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Common sense is not a gift, but a curse. Because thenyou have to deal with all the people who don't have it. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Not much annoys me more than JA fiction that talks down to kids. "Oh they won't notice how little effort I put into this plot and writing!"

I think that's one thing I enjoyed about the Potter series and the Hunger Games. Both series were aimed at the YA group but didn't write down to them and as such both series are enjoyed greatly by adults, too. They knew can handle a lot more than some people think they can. Like the deaths of beloved characters like Dobby and Fred. Or the idea of kids fighting to the death for the entertainment of others.

Or maybe it's just that J.K. Rowling and Suzanne Collins are just better writers for that genre than James Patterson is.

« Last Edit: April 12, 2013, 07:21:29 AM by Piratelvr1121 »

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Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars. You have a right to be here. Be cheerful, strive to be happy. -Desiderata

Gack! I'm rapidly jumping on the "incorrect food/drink/mannerisms for a particular era" bandwagon. In this current book I'm reading, an aristocratic family in London in the year 1667 is celebrating Christmas Eve, by eating: clove-studded turkey, artichoke bottoms, spinach tarts, potatoes, almond cheesecake and pumpkin pie. My brain is going crazy insisting that you wouldn't really stud your turkey with cloves, since they were so expensive at that point. Modern day cream cheese wasn't invented until 1928. Pumpkins were around at that time, but they weren't real popular, I don't believe. Plus, everyone talks in "modern" English except for the swearing, when they abruptly revert to saying "Od's fish" and "God's blood". It's very jarring!

Gack! I'm rapidly jumping on the "incorrect food/drink/mannerisms for a particular era" bandwagon. In this current book I'm reading, an aristocratic family in London in the year 1667 is celebrating Christmas Eve, by eating: clove-studded turkey, artichoke bottoms, spinach tarts, potatoes, almond cheesecake and pumpkin pie. My brain is going crazy insisting that you wouldn't really stud your turkey with cloves, since they were so expensive at that point. Modern day cream cheese wasn't invented until 1928. Pumpkins were around at that time, but they weren't real popular, I don't believe. Plus, everyone talks in "modern" English except for the swearing, when they abruptly revert to saying "Od's fish" and "God's blood". It's very jarring!

What is this book? I ask so that if I come across it I don't pick it up.

I'm pretty sure that a family in London would not be eating turkey, either, unless they were wildly iconoclastic in their dietary preferences. While some turkeys may have been imported from the Americas by that time and made it to market, the traditional English feast poultry was the goose. Even in Conan Doyle's day they were raised and sold to Londoners for Christmas dinner (ref. "The Blue Carbuncle" for details).

With respect to the suspect almond cheesecake, according to www.cheesecake.com (who should know, I suppose):

"As the Romans expanded their empire, they brought cheesecake recipes to the Europeans. Great Britain and Eastern Europe began experimenting with ways to put their own unique spin on cheesecake. In each country of Europe, the recipes started taking on different cultural shapes, using ingredients native to each region. In 1545, the first cookbook was printed. It described the cheesecake as a flour-based sweet food. Even Henry VIIIís chef did his part to shape the cheesecake recipe. Apparently, his chef cut up cheese into very small pieces and soaked those pieces in milk for three hours. Then, he strained the mixture and added eggs, butter and sugar."

However, that's irrelevant, as everyone knows the traditional English Christmas was the pudding, usually of the plum (actually, raisin) variety. I suspect the author was describing his/her family's own traditional dinner, or at least one that s/he would like to have, rather than one for the period.

Yes, I was thinking that cheesecake wasn't anachronistic (although it would be different to the cheesecake we're used to) and if they were aristocrats they might easily have cheesecake as well as plum pudding, but the Turkey and cloves are just wrong, the pumpkin pie is highly unlikely, and neither artichokes nor spinach would be in season in late December...

I've heard quite a few authors who have written both adult and children's books that writing for children is harder as children pay much closer attention and are far more likely to notice when you get things wrong or leave things out.

Or maybe it's just that J.K. Rowling and Suzanne Collins are just better writers for that genre than James Patterson is.

Don't you mean Gabrielle Charbonnet? I am fully convinced that at this point James Patterson just writes a plot outline on a cocktail napkin and hires someone else to write it, while he shoots the inane promos for TV. No human can put out that much content, in so many genres, that all read so differently, and manage to keep up his promo schedule. He's the Thomas Kinkade of literature.

D'oh! Yes, of course, the author (and I) overlooked that something like spinach would not be in season for Christmas, and isn't something that could be preserved easily before refrigeration.

Well... if they have a hothouse, they may be able to grown veggies and fruit out of season.

Clove studded turkey sounds AWFUL...

One of my favorite authors seems to have gone off her rocker lately. Nearly every heroine she writes now looks like the author, thing have spun off into supernatural-type situations, and I am about ready to just stop reading anything new from her. It's such a shame, too, because I enjoyed her historical romances. I just can't take the new stuff.

I don't think even a hothouse in the 17th century would have provided fresh spinach (although I could be wrong). I recall watching a documentary series on cooking on an English Victorian estate, and trying to get fresh vegetables, even in the 19th century, was a real struggle in the winter. Most of the cooking involved root vegetables, which were much more easily stored.